Things have been a little dicey for the Hollister Independence
Rally Committee (HIRC) since July’s signature event. Board members
have left, the executive director has been fired, and the
feasibility of the event even continuing has been questioned.
Hollister – Things have been a little dicey for the Hollister Independence Rally Committee (HIRC) since July’s signature event. Board members have left, the executive director has been fired, and the feasibility of the event even continuing has been questioned. But with a new president and a new event coordinator at its helm, HIRC wants to make a few more changes.
Next year’s rally will put more value on two things, according to HIRC president Dave Ventura and HIRC event coordinator Helen Nelson: Raising more money to donate to nonprofits, and making the event more family-friendly than ever.
“I think for the past few years, we’ve just been trying so hard to survive, our focus was just on trying to make (the rally) happen” said Nelson, who became event coordinator in September after spending 18 months as the committee’s office coordinator. “Right now, we’re really focusing on raising money for the nonprofits.”
Nelson was appointed events coordinator after the group’s executive director, Bob Beals, was ousted by a board vote in July of this year.
Nelson said she was promoted to the position of event coordinator because of her experiences with HIRC over the past 18 months and her previous work before joining the committee. She was in charge of vendor booking and event layout last year and has a background of 15 years of bookkeeping experience, she said. She also said she has a background of working with nonprofit organizations, and even founded her own nonprofit ministry.
As far as the actual title of “event coordinator,” Nelson said she had no idea why it was created or why the position of “executive director” was nixed in favor of it.
“I think for the most part it’s pretty much the same thing,” she said.
There was uncertainty this year as to whether the rally would even happen when the city was unable to procure enough law enforcement officials for the event. Once sufficient law enforcement was obtained, the city asked HIRC to foot the bill, which they did.
The rally ended up bringing in about $650,000 before expenses, Ventura said in September.
Now that HIRC knows the rally will actually take place in 2005, Ventura said he and the rest of HIRC’s board will strive to make it very family oriented.
“We don’t want just the bikers there, we want to be able to say the people from Hollister can come down to this thing, and the bikers can bring their families as well. It’s about getting everyone involved,” Ventura said.
He emphasized, however, the main theme of the rally will not change.
“The one thing we don’t want to lose is the spirit of the American biker. No matter how we focus around everything else, we still want to keep the focus as ‘This is the birthplace of the American biker,'” he said.
Ventura added the new board members would be instrumental in helping this spirit stay alive while maintaining a family environment. The three new board members HIRC has recently appointed – Linda Durie, Bruce Beetz, and Mario Encinias – are “more business-oriented people,” Ventura said.
“I think the founders have done a great job, but the new administration is a lot more business-oriented people who have their best interests in the community,” he said.
Jessica Quandt covers local politics for the Hollister Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566 ext 332 or jquandt@freelance news.com
